file photo

 

A leading figure in real estate has thrown his weight behind the government's plans to attract foreigners to buy property in Thailand but with three main caveats.

 

Those foreigners need to be loaded with money, limited to where they can buy and potentially stopped from having a vote if more than 50% of a condo project is owned by them.

 

Dr Wichai Wiratkaphan said the government's one million foreigners, one trillion baht investment and economic stimulus plan was a great idea. 

 

Picture: Daily News

 

The acting director of the influential Agency for Real Estate Affairs was insistent, however, there must be restrictions, reported Daily News yesterday.

 

The issue has cause a major row in Thailand with 'clarifications' issue by government spokespeople only muddying the waters.

 

Critics see Thailand as overly protectionist while many who live in the country and support Thai spouses and children feel they are being overlooked. 

 

Under the doctor's ideas retirees owning a little bit of Isaan and building a home to look after their family remains further away than ever. 

 

Dr Wichai proposes:

 

Only foreigners with ten million baht and more should qualify. They should be prevented from buying in the 3 - 8 million baht range favored by most Thai employees as this would lead to pricing Thais out of the market.

 

Foreigners should be restricted to buying houses in the Thai capital Bangkok, the island of Phuket in the south and areas of the so called Eastern Economic Corridor (that's Pattaya mainly).

 

"They should not be free to buy everywhere," he said, a move that will stop foreigners "cornering the market".

 

Lastly if more than 49% of condos end up being allowed to be sold to foreigners - as mooted in the cabinet's plans - foreigners should not be allowed to vote.

 

He said that Thais should keep more than 50% of voting rights irrespective of how many own units in buildings. 

 

"Thais need to stay in control" in such circumstances, he said.

 

He was also in favor of leases going up in increments of 30 years rather than 90 year or 99 year leases being offered off the bat.

 

Careful consideration of all factors was important, a beaming Dr Wichai told the media.  

 

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There’s so many things they can do to attract foreigners before easy property laws.

 

Rich foreigners don’t want to deal with:

-90 day reporting

-alcohol bans

-the government flip flopping every other day

-the government leaking personal information

-corrupt police

…

 

Now, if you want to attract Chinese investors that won’t live here and contribute to the local economy then yeah…

Thai people has this inherited phobia about being colonized and lose land and control to foreigners, this is deep seeded fears going back many generations, only now and out of desperation for capital injections they're reluctantly letting go but not for long i envisage...

Come on down dodgy Chinese investors who want to hide their money. 

21 minutes ago, webfact said:

Only foreigners with ten million baht and more should qualify. They should be prevented from buying in the 3 - 8 million baht range favored by most Thai employees

If I had ten million baht I wouldn't be be begging Thailand to let me in to buy a more expensive house than I need in an area not of my choice!  Why can't they see that the best investment is in retirees who live here permanently; adopt Thai children abandoned by their fathers; support the mothers/families and local companies all year round yet get treated as terrorists in every walk of Thai life.

Evergrande probably makes this initiative irrelevant. 

27 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Thai people has this inherited phobia about being colonized and lose land and control to foreigners, this is deep seeded fears going back many generations, only now and out of desperation for capital injections they're reluctantly letting go but not for long i envisage...

Really? None of the ones I know have expressed these fears to me. 

 

How have they displayed them to you? You know - actual Thai people you know...

Laughable, land in Thailand is already way overpriced, who on earth do they think they are.

Want to attract talented and/or well-to-do foreigners? 0% tax rate on all income and capital gains. Personal or corporate. Bam - solved ur problem. ✌️

1 hour ago, ezzra said:

Thai people has this inherited phobia about being colonized and lose land and control to foreigners

In all honesty I don't think regular Joes give a hoot about it. To me it's about the elites controlling the market to their advantage and right wing xenophobia. As long as Thailand adopts these protectionist approaches it will always be questionable destination to invest. Is it free capitalist market or not? No it's not.

Don't worry, Dr Wichai. I always invest my money where I have 100% control over it. The returns from my apartment buildings in my home country provide enough money that I can live here very comfortably. I save myself all the stress of having to deal with the authorities here. From my own experience I can say that property in Thailand is more headache than joy. After 25 years in Thailand, I can safely say that my next big investments will definitely not be in Thailand. Have a nice day.

1 hour ago, nausea said:

Evergrande probably makes this initiative irrelevant. 

Never heard of them until 14 days ago, but it lookslike a bankruptcy is not something we should wish for.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

He said that Thais should keep more than 50% of voting rights irrespective of how many own units in buildings.

Just choose this one out of many extreme things in this mans, so called, brain. Here he sides with the minority disregarding if 75% is owned by foreigners. Fantastic! I say, Dr. Wichai for PM!

Apart from the difficulty for a Westerner to predict Chinese behavior -  and there might well be a million of the many Chine dollar millionaires that have interest in settling in Thailand - I don't think there will be hordes of Western dollar-millionaire retirees queuee up outside Thailand's borders, waiting to buy property and settle there...????

It will take as long as the Civil Union Bill / sam sex marriage it will take decades. Thai Government is not in for land owned by foreigners..

Normal 'Thais' are mostly already priced out of the market, was looking at some 2 million baht houses in Chiang Mai the other day priced at 4.5 million. I wanted to say to the developer, THIS IS THAILAND but that would likely fall on deaf ears. Shocking quality an arms reach from next door with basically no land. 

 

I've never had an issue with foreigners not being abler to buy land, if you have a genuine company you can still buy anyway, but I am starting to have an issue with all these government scheme ideas over the last few months to attract new foreigners (Chinese???) when there are already so many here.

 

They want very wealthy foreigners??? NO, Thailand's sole purpose is to be an extremely cheap destination that offers everything cheaper than elsewhere. At least it was when I moved here, stop changing policies, it's getting frustrating. 

Not to worry. The change of laws, which may have signified some vision and courage, have been struck down already.

 

Regression always rules the day with this toxic and backwards dinosaur administration. 

"Lastly if more than 49% of condos end up being allowed to be sold to foreigners - as mooted in the cabinet's plans - foreigners should not be allowed to vote."

 

Great, so you buy something and have no control over it. No thanks.

3 hours ago, mikebell said:

If I had ten million baht I wouldn't be be begging Thailand to let me in to buy a more expensive house than I need in an area not of my choice!  Why can't they see that the best investment is in retirees who live here permanently; adopt Thai children abandoned by their fathers; support the mothers/families and local companies all year round yet get treated as terrorists in every walk of Thai life.

You mean suckerswho marry single mom prostitutes?

 

That demographic is never going to be something any government attracts.

 

They are looking for wealthy.

 

 

2 hours ago, mikebell said:

If I had ten million baht I wouldn't be be begging Thailand to let me in to buy a more expensive house than I need in an area not of my choice!  Why can't they see that the best investment is in retirees who live here permanently; adopt Thai children abandoned by their fathers; support the mothers/families and local companies all year round yet get treated as terrorists in every walk of Thai life.

Maybe a good investment, not sure about the best. There's also working age people here who have families and have set up businesses, as these are usually business targeted to other expats, tourists or export. They are a much greater stimulus to the economy and often bring in new ideas.

 

Thai people need to be considered more in this, it's fairly transparent that it's about lump sums, rather than developing the country. Other countries target people who invest in businesses, as this is on going and not a one off payment.

8 minutes ago, pedro01 said:

You mean suckerswho marry single mom prostitutes?

 

That demographic is never going to be something any government attracts.

 

They are looking for wealthy.

 

 

Charming. Well there's no shortage of former sex workers who have married and gone to live in the West. There's no questions about previous employment when applying for the visa. Some governments try to make life better for the people, while still having programs to attract investors. Speaking to Thais, they generally have a positive opinion of expats raising other people's children.

Of course a real estate agent would say it won't increase prices but that is a total lie. Look at what is happening in Vancouver for example. Now many Canadians can't afford housing there. Hong Kong exodus part 2 have just made housing prices jump 40% this year alone. 

Easy to regulate, have a local market and a foreign market for purchasing. QED

 

"limited to where they can buy". I don't understand the rational behind this, as most selected locations will be undesirable to many.
Just impose other limits like preventing foreign companies from purchasing residential real-estate (except condos up to 50% like now), set minimum and maximum size of land, minimum pricing, or maybe a 25% or whatever stamp duty when real-estate is sold to a foreigner, this should stop speculation, and people would only be a house where they indeed intends to live.

lol just limit it to 10 rai for residential use only, problem solved.

10 rai sounds much but it really isn't, 16 000 sqm, basically something like a parcel of 200*80m for peace of land isn't much.

 

People buy anyway, ur stupid rules or not... no one cares.

 

Typically thailand, never wants to give anything in return, well have fun staying poor then.

 

The <deleted> he talks about voting rights and that foreigners shouldn't be allowed to control the bloody building they live in is everything that is wrong with this country in a nutshell.

 

If they can't compete with the likes of portugal or caribean island or cyprus or whatever in terms of visa/residency and real estate then no ones going to use this anyway and they can as well just spare them themselves the loss of face.

 

This 30 year lease alone is such a joke, 30 years are nothing for a house/land... even communist holes have 99 year leases.

  They can offer land purchase for foreigners only in certain areas (undeveloped, rural) and limit amount of land per one owner.

  Most of Thais are already priced out by richer Thais, I see hundreds townhouses bought at price above 5 mln, and most of it just stay empty, rich Thais just parking they excess money in property.

22 minutes ago, SymS said:

"limited to where they can buy"

Klong Riviera

The Thai mindset on full display this past 20 months including this @#$ head. This greedy attitude has hurt Thailand more than any bandaid can hide.  Good luck expats.  I think I am going to be reading painful things for you all the next few years.

 

What does he mean " have 10 million"?   In  ready cash?  To transfer into Thailand?  To be big enough fish for a worthwhile mark?   So 300k USD.  Why don't they try to promise some sore of ROI?  Who will you sell these properties to in 20 years?  By then maybe you can but in other areas? So easy to change the rules in 5, 10, 30 years that would force a sell at big losses.   

You can save your Plasticland, we are not jealous.

At least Pedro didnt   marry a single mum  bar girl, his partners a ladyboy.